Crime, Legality and Justice Lost


In “A Theory of Justice” John Rawls defines the institution of justice as being “a public system of rules which defines offices and positions… These rules specify certain forms of action as permissible, others as forbidden; and they provide for certain penalties and defences, and so on, when violations occur.” Rawls continues on stating “An institution may be thought of in two ways: first as an abstract object, that is, as a possible form of conduct expressed by a system of rules; and second, as the realization in the thought and conduct of certain persons at a certain time and place of the actions specified by these rules.” Therefore, it becomes rather apparent that there are great ambiguities which can arise in the matter of justice.

Justice systems have evolved from the dark ages of Thomas Hobbes’ natural state of man. In “Leviathan” Hobbes describes this state as follows: “During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.” Over this evolution, the most arduous of tasks has been the balancing of that power with the rights of the individual. Certainly, in some totalitarian incantations of justice, individual rights were sidelined as torture and summary executions were common practise. Certainly, history is not at a loss when it comes to those who have lead with fear.

In Western nations such as my own, Canada, governments have endeavoured to move toward more humane justice systems, with a primary focus being rehabilitation and reintegration into society. In the early 1970’s the death penalty was abolished in this Canada. The United States seems to be on a similar line when it comes to its justice system, even though several U.S. states still have capital punishment.

Certainly when we speak of the Criminal Justice System, we are speaking about a system where the pendulum is in perpetual motion and precedents are set by the Supreme Court Justices of the day, much in line with what Rawls stated. Being in the frontlines of the system in Canada, however, I wonder if the pendulum has possibly dislodged from its anchor and has commenced rolling in a new direction. The transformation that seems to becoming apparent in both Canada and from my observations of the American system, is from being a justice system to becoming a legal system.

Case in point: in Canada if you are convicted of a crime, you immediately have more rights than other members of society at large, losing only your mobility rights as a result of your incarceration. When you become a ward of the state you are entitled to three meals per day, an hour minimum of fresh air exercise, discounts on things like tobacco, free legal aid, clothing, heat, electricity, satellite television, visits (including overnighters in trailers even for convicted murderers), phone calls and you can vote in elections. Where does all of this come from if you are a law abiding citizen? If I don’t pay my electric bills, cloth and feed my family, who will?

Somewhere in our quest to become a more humane system and one that seeks to return the vast majority of Offenders back into the community at large, the shift has gone from the victims of crime to assisting the perpetuator of the crime in hopes that they will not commit these acts again. In theory, much like Marxism, this sounds viable. In practise and given the endless factors affecting the criminal element, this system is dangerously flawed.

This also demonstrates the transformation from a justice to a legal system in that the system that we presently are utilising is based entirely on the rights of the individual; a reaction against such totalitarian regimes as previously depicted. The result, however, is like taking too much medication for a particular ailment, resulting in consequences fare more dire and extreme. For example, a man rapes and kills a child. The family will receive some community support. If they are fortunate they will have insurance to pay for the counselling and anti-depressant medication that they may well require, the funeral, etc. Perhaps not. And our child killer? Sentenced, psychologists and psychiatrists at his beck and call, all his necessary medications provided at the taxpayers expense, courses in anger management, eventually to work his way down through the system when, perhaps 15 years later, they will be released to a half way house.

In the media we constantly receive dangerous offender reports. These are reports of violent Offenders or sexual predators who have been released from prison because their sentences are up. This happens almost daily in this country. Now if the second mandate of our Justice nee Legal system is to protect the public at large, how then can it justify the release of such predators back into the community? The official answer: it is their legal right.

In my opinion, all serious sentences should be indeterminate in duration. After convicted of a crime, that Offender should be remanded to the appropriate maximum or medium security facility where they have to complete a battery of programming. Eventually, earning their way down to minimum security prisons and, finally, half way houses in the community, Offenders sentence lengths would be totally determined by the individual’s compliance and completion of programming and good behaviour. Privileges inside the institutions would also be dependent on behaviour and could be taken away as easily as granted.

The exceptions would be for individuals convicted of first degree murder and sex offenders.

Further to this system, which we will call the A-Track, would be the Z-Track. The Z-Track would simply be maximum security institutional warehouses where those convicted of murder in addition to any individuals who have gone through the A-Track and commissioned a second serious crime. Life would consist of basic nourishment and one hour fresh air exercise and nothing further. Executions would be at the request of the inmate as an alternative.

The Z-Track might seem excessively harsh, but we must reconsider this position. If a persons commits a crime so terrible such as child rape or cold blooded murder, what possible motive exists for ever allowing them to return to society and, further to this, I ask how we could justify the risk to society. As for those who have been through the A-Track and re-offended, I also believe that it is justified to state that society went out of its way to assist this individual to become law abiding. Life does not offer many second chances, so why should criminals be given multiple opportunities, given the cost of their actions? It was written in the Magna Carta “To no one will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice”. Certainly I can see how this can be used in defence of the Accused, as certainly the Magna Carta was largely written to prevent against the whimsical excesses of Old World Europe. My point is that when convicted “by the lawful judgement of his peers and by the law of the land” that we need to appropriate an adequate measure to keep the scales balanced.

Freemasonry and Me


My Mother was one of ten children, raised on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. One of the first families to settle from Germany in this area, my Grandfather and his siblings made a living primarily as woodsmen and small scale farmers, interrupted by service in Canada’s overseas forces in both World Wars. Tradition was strong in the family, with all my Mother’s siblings continuing this way of life with the exception of her and my Aunt (who became a teacher) who moved to Halifax in their early 20’s to make an urban life.

As a young lad, I did spend most of my weekends and summer holidays working back at the family’s homestead. My Grandfather died before I was born, largely due to shrapnel lingering in his body from the Great War, but was revered by my Aunts, Uncles and Mother alike. I came to possess my Grandfather’s helmet from WWI, amazed at how small his head was and cumbersome his cover. In contrast, I was later to inherit a couple of his rings which are so large that I could not even have them re-sized to fit my fingers (and I’m a husky 6’1” 220 lb man!).

Throughout my Grandmother’s home I saw a symbol of a square, compass and letter “G” in the centre. In my early adolescence I asked an Uncle, who also had a ring with a similar symbol, what it stood for, and that was my first knowledge of Freemasonry. Further enquiries revealed to me that pretty much every man on my Mother’s side of the family were Freemasons. Late in life when I met my Father (he and my Mother divorced when I was 18 months of age and I didn’t meet him until I was in my 20’s), it turned out he had also joined the Craft.

As someone who loves tradition, I began to ask one of my Uncles about Freemasonry and he was very tight lipped about the whole thing. What more could make a young mind want to know more? I asked him “why I would want to join?” to which he replied “you have to join to find out”. This whole aspect of secrecy has been both the biggest attraction and detractor from Freemasonry as I see it. In any case, none of my Uncles would reveal anything further to me, other than that it would be beneficial for me to join.

In my 20’s I became largely engrossed in academics, paying particular attention to the Humanities. In the 1990’s I began to read books like “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” (by the guys suing the “DaVinci Code” author, Dan Brown), and numerous histories about Freemasonry. I became fascinated. Based on my readings, it appeared that Masons were intellectual esoteric Gnostics with considerable networkings and influence. In a nut shell, Freemasonry looked like it would offer me intellectual stimulation beyond my days of being a University student, in addition to meeting people who would assist me to get on with my goals.

So, in 1997 I became a Mason.

Initially, becoming a Mason was quite the spectacle. Your enter a Lodge and go through ceremonies that have existed for a very long time. Sadly, that is where the stimulation ended. What I found in the Lodge where I belonged was a group of old men who bickered about trivial politics of the Lodge itself, offered nothing in the form of intellectualism and the monthly meeting was nothing more than a business report. Wanting to be a part of the solution, I attempted to make things happen, publishing my own monthly Masonic newsletter where I’d have some topic of interest, in addition to organising a few socials and brought in some young blood. Sadly, the Lodge of which I was part was beyond resuscitation.

Disheartened, I demitted. It was a pity really as Freemasonry could be so much more in my estimation, if Lodges consisted of more Brethren with a fire in their belly regarding the fraternity. Turns out I am not alone, and, recently, another member of my old Lodge has handpicked several other Masons and they have started a new Lodge that will be set up along the guidelines of my original expectations. Initially when he asked me to join, I declined the offer, feeling that my ambitions for the Craft were all but extinguished. Then a few things happened. First off, I watched “National Treasure” which I got for Christmas. This film was reminiscent of the passion and excitement I felt way back before my initiation to Freemasonry. The second, in the spirit of the Kevin Costner film, I thought to myself: “if you build it, they will come”.

And so it goes, the iconoclast and the Craft. Life is full of interesting combinations, is it not?

Easter and Egg Laying Rabbits


It’s Easter Sunday, and, as recent entries have pertained to religion, I must again stress my lack of understanding in how rational, critical thinking individuals can be religious. I don’t mean this in a mean or criticizing manner, but, rather, of the pure inability to understand. I can grasp that people believe that there is something greater out there and that something can be manifested in a number of esoteric incarnations or forms. I must say, though disliking the non-committal nature of being agnostic, I share a similar wonderment. What I am talking about is religion period as in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.

All holy books, whether we are talking about the Qu'ran, Bible or book of Mormon as examples are undisputedly written by mortal men, though under the premise that God is channelling through these chosen chroniclers. My first observation is as follows: Say you are visiting my Blog and I write what I claim to be a prophesy that God has given to me and instructed me to distribute His message via my web site. Further to bolster my claim, my actual date of birth is Christmas Day and that is why He has come through me. Now honestly, how many of you out there in cyber land would believe that I am a prophet? I know I am writing in an age where images of the Virgin Mary allegedly appear on toast, but I’m thinking that most of you would think I was a nut like David K. in Waco, TX or Charlie Manson! So why do billions believe in texts written by men in times when Science was limited and superstition reigned supreme?

Next, as emphasised by the recent release of the gospel according to Judas, we have to look at the information upon which the major religions of the world are based. Firstly, using Christianity as an example, there are the Old and New Testaments which vary incredibly as far as the general disposition of Yahweh goes. Then there are the books that are added and removed such as Maccabes. Then there is the issue of translations from translations and those who have had power over the translations (i.e. King James version). History clearly shows us of the Catholic Church’s politiquing and censorship, followed by the re-vamping and re-interpretations of the Protestant movement. The whole issue of the “virgin birth” is also being hotly contested as of late, based on better understanding of the languages. In spite of these ambiguities, The Roman Church waged numerous Crusades and hosted Inquisitions to the point that the numbers of innocent people tortured and killed would rival many a genocide. At the risk of offending any Catholics out there (which is NOT my intent), from a historical perspective, how different is the blood on the hands from the Roman Church via their Crusades, colonisation and Inquisitions any different than that on the hands of the Nazis? In my view, purity of faith and purity of race aren’t a whole lot different. This isn’t to take away from many of the Catholic Churches good works, but remember that Hitler also took Germany from a beaten nation after the Great War to being a Superpower by the 1940’s.

Again, let me stress that I am speaking about belief in religion and not a general sense that there is something greater than humankind out there. So, further to this point, one can not help but look at the fact that most people are members of the religion that they were born into (which is very much a community/cultural matter as well), never actually exploring what is out there and deciding what really makes sense to them. As religion deals with esoteric and absolutes which we can not perceive, we must be able to live in harmony with our morality and sense of what is. In referring to my “belief-o-matic” entry, it is interesting to see how my personal beliefs correspond to religions that I have never known or even heard of (and I was disturbed by my close correlation to Scientology!). Back in the 1990’s I began to call myself a Buddhist as it appeared to possess a morality which I could live with, was not dogmatic and made sense. The Buddha himself, who was a mere man, stated that what he has written are what he found through his experience, but to ignore that and find out for yourself as he might be completely out in left field. That is, dogmatically, a far cry from monotheistic religions that claim that there is one God and if you don’t listen you’re going to burn in Hell for an eternity and if you convert then you must die.

Finally, as this is Easter, One must point out the painfully obvious in terms of Christianity in that most of its holidays correspond to preceding pagan rites. Christmas is the same – the Winter Solstice. History has documented the Roman’s coveting of pagan celebrations to bring its people in line under Christianity and the Holy Roman Church. In spite of all this, people still believe that Christmas is the birth and Easter, the death and resurrection of the Son of God. Again I ask: how do rational people believe in the dogmatic side of this? Easter, the eggs, the Pagan Rites of Spring and Fertility rituals???!

In closing, most religious people that I speak with seem to fill in the gaps with “faith”. I wish I shared some of this “faith”, but I guess we are all hard wired differently. Again, I don’t wish to condemn those of you who believe and wish you a Happy Easter.

Need Salvation? Try the Belief-O-Matic!


My wife turned me on to a really cool web site where you answer a questionnaire of 20 questions and it determines, in order, what specific religions correspond with your beliefs. The site is: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html . My wife, as I am certain most of the tree hugging, left lean liberals like her and I came out as being Universal Unitarians, followed a close second as a Liberal Quaker (ironic as she is from England originally).

…And my results from the Belief-O-Matic:

1.
Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.
Liberal Quakers (98%)
3.
Neo-Pagan (94%)
4.
Mahayana Buddhism (92%)
5.
New Age (88%)
6.
Taoism (85%)
7.
Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (83%)
8.
Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (78%)
9.
Theravada Buddhism (75%)
10.
Scientology (74%)
11.
New Thought (73%)
12.
Secular Humanism (70%)
13.
Hinduism (64%)
14.
Sikhism (57%)
15.
Orthodox Quaker (53%)
16.
Jainism (50%)
17.
Reform Judaism (49%)
18.
Bahá'í Faith (48%)
19.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (45%)
20.
Nontheist (33%)
21.
Jehovah's Witness (30%)
22.
Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
23.
Seventh Day Adventist (21%)
24.
Eastern Orthodox (17%)
25.
Islam (17%)
26.
Orthodox Judaism (17%)
27.
Roman Catholic (17%)

My Kingship Is Dead, Long Live the King!


Alas, it would appear that my chances of becoming the next King of England, or at least a Knight, Duke or Earl, have all but evaporated. You see, for over a year now my wife’s baby sister has been an officer cadet at Sandhurst, England, with Prince Harry. Although they slept in the same bunk bed together, shared a foxhole or two, paraded, polished and ran into each other in their PJ’s, no budding romance has flourished into being which would cause me to begin my Machiavellian nee Shakespearean epic conquest for the throne.

Interesting that I would deign to be King, given that I have long said that Canada should break free of the Commonwealth and become a republic. I wish that we had followed suit with the Americans back in the days of their Revolution as I believe our nation would’ve progressed significantly more than it has. Was it our second Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier, who stated “the future belongs to Canada”? I guess he missed the boat there!

I also went through a phase, back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when I became infatuated with Irish Republicanism and, while living in Dublin met a few interesting “lads” via my flat mate who was a Sinn Fein lawyer…

I have nothing against the Queen, but, really hold her and the late Queen Mother in the highest regard. They have been true definitions of class and dignity. I simply feel that Canada doesn’t need a monarchy (unless I was the regent of course) and, as a result of being a Commonwealth nation modeled on Britain, I feel that we have been somewhat stunted in becoming a prosperous nation with its own sense of self. Both the English and Americans are peoples who really seem to know who they are, and though I often object how they assert this sense of self on the rest of the world, admire them as nations.

In any case, I’m very proud of my sister-in-law (you can barely see her face in the photo, cut off on the far right) for enduring the rigours that the British Army has put her through over what must have at times seemed an eternity. So here’s a big WELL DONE LASS and best wishes on your posting in Northern Ireland (Erin go Bragh!!!)!!!!!

Insomnia, Life and Domination


I have struggled with insomnia for years now, which hasn’t been aided by shift work in the least. So, after a restless night, I elected to book off sick from work today. We work 7 on, 3 off, 7 on , 4 off which is also a very long haul, flipping from days to evenings with the odd midnight thrown in. Sadly, prisons don’t keep banker’s hours. Between my chronic insomnia and raising a toddler who has never slept in passed 06:30, I am chronically exhausted and wonder how people in military roles could function in combat (though, most certainly the adrenalin factor is at play to a large degree).

In any event, I began a couple year stint working in the Hole this week. It was not uneventful, having an inmate slashing up ten minutes into my second shift causing us to don biohazard suits and walk ankle deep in blood. Yesterday, another inmate who was really bugging out was throwing his shit out into the corridor in front of his cell. This usually freaks lay folk out, but, I assure you, such activities are not uncommon in maximum security penitentiaries. Needless to say one wants to divert their thoughts when not at work. My point, which I’m finally getting to in reference to the previous paragraph, is simply an observation in regards to my amazement that folks come home from the blood, chaos, filth and exhaustion of war and ever sleep peacefully again.

The Human Race is truly bent toward masochistic tendencies it would appear, while all other life forms seem geared to survive. That isn’t to say that wars of sorts to not happen in the wild as various critters combat one another for the prime feeding areas. One must really wonder where we are headed as a species though as we find misbalance between war and conquest for profit against environmental and sustenance issues. We justify war (shooting and bombing) as in the present Afghanistan mission because we don’t want terrorists being trained to kill innocent people, while we keep those of convicted of sodomizing and murdering children in prisons, ensuring that their ever right is observed. We argue that to execute a convicted murder as inhumane, but can accept casualties in Iraq as collateral damage in a war sold to the public as being a just crusade. Was it Stalin who said something to the effect that “the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic”?

I see these warring tendencies in myself. I have become totally absorbed in learning to play Chess which, though on one hand is a largely academic pursuit, so too is it a mock-up of war whose strategies and interplay largely translate into other areas of life and success. Certainly there is a competitiveness here and one might see how, when given pieces like George W. Bush has been with the U.S. military arsenal, the desire to conquest on a larger scale might manifest itself. This is nothing new, reaching back epochs to the days of men like Alexander the Great. Football and the UFC are the same as the Gladiators of Rome sanitized, illustrating how this thirst for combat/competition has always been a part of who/what we are. That being said, should we fight what appears to be an ingrained instinct? Is this our form of population control, suffering because we no longer seek death but rather submission or simply more points?

…I should sleep….

Take Me (back) Out to the Ball Game...


Baseball has a strong tradition where I grew up in Nova Scotia. Religiously my Uncle and I would watch the Boston Red Sox every weekend as our cable networks were feeds from Bangor, Maine. As late as when I started University I was such a gung ho BoSox fan that I was convinced any woman wanting to marry me would have to consent to having the ceremony at Fenway Park. Movies like “Bull Durham”, one of my all time favs (partially because I’ve always had a crush on Susan Sarandon), captures so much of the spirit of what Baseball was to me. Needless to say, in my Baseball diamond of religion, if the Red Sox were god, then the New York Yankees were the devil and the Mets proverbial Judas’s.

Then the strikes happened, salaries became beyond ridiculous and Baseball fell from grace. Its fall and my disgust with its endless scandals made me so disinterested that I didn’t even watch an inning of the Red Sox epic win over the Yankees, coming back from three games down to win the World Series, effectively breaking the curse of the Bambino! There was a time when if I could’ve seen a live MLB game that I would have jumped at the opportunity. Last June, however, when I had a chance to see the Braves play the Padres in San Diego, I walked past the stadium before the opening pitch feeling a only a slight pang. In spite of all that, I was wearing my BoSox cap, surprised at all the comments folks down there made. It seems that wearing a particular baseball team cap down in the States is like wearing a soccer jersey in Europe, but resulting not in hooliganism, but rather a couple words exchanged between strangers. So, in America at least, it appears that the spirit of Baseball is very much alive.

Now, as I write, opening day has just passed and I’ve found myself being drawn back to Baseball and the Majors. There is definitely an academic side to the game that has always been part of its appeal. There is also a particular je ne sai quoi with Spring arriving and that overall sensation of kicking back and watching the boys of summer do their thing. I still can not forgive Baseball for the disgustingly high salaries and the fact that championships are largely being bought, but, unlike many other pro sports, at least a Major League game has cheap seats allowing peons like myself to go. For example, I live in Edmonton where the legendary Edmonton Oilers NHL hockey team are based and haven’t been to a game in years as even the nosebleed seats are ridiculously expensive. Hockey – the NHL that is – is dead to me because of this, capped off by the lock-out last season. In spite of my anger, one can hardly blame the players as I’m certain there are very few of us out there who would go to our bosses and tell them not to pay us so much for our job. If anyone it truly to blame it is the fans as we are the ones who perpetuate the cycle of high salaries, fuel the merchandising machine and continue to pay high ticket prices.

So, with the revolution not happening anytime soon, perhaps I take in a few more ballgames on the tube this year. Go Sox!

Wham! Bam! No thank you SPAM!


It’s sad to see how something like the Internet gets abused by the lowest common denominator: namely the whole sex industry thing. It’s amazing the amount of spam one receives via email promising a larger member, better orgasms, etc. Then there are the charlatans offering quick financial gain. I recently received a spam email from a fellow claiming to be in Togo who was administering a multi-million dollar estate and needed a middle man, paying you something like 2.5 million USD – do some people actually believe in this kind of stuff? I suppose it’s no different than the weight loss industry where folks fork out several dollars for what is more or less a few cups of coffee in a capsule. I guess these are all bastions of the Enterprise Culture: sex sells, get rich fast and if you have a problem then pop a pill as opposed to make the necessary changes. At least tobacco companies post on their products an admission that using their product, on average, will kill you over time. What about all these non-regulated (often nothing more than a few impotent herbs and majority fillers) “health” products?

The whole health and fitness industry is a to edged sword. On the one hand, if it gets people active, doing yoga, lifting weights, running, biking and dressing stylishly, then bully for it. The dark underbelly lies in the “lies” – of supplements that really are a waste of money and perhaps bad for you, of unrealistic gains promised by the routines in all of the popular fitness mags. Ian Harrison, former Olympian Body Building contestant and British Champion and friend of mine told me that often in mags like Flex they would have “Ian’s Arm Routine”. Truth is they would print an arm workout garnished by Ian’s photo, and that was the extent of it all.

As a former professional and International Rugby League player, I encourage you to definitely pick a fitness lifestyle. That being said, keep your expectations real – genetics are 90% of the folks that you see in the fitness magazines. Take supplements, but not so many that you rattle when you walk. I’d recommend a good multi, Omega 3-6-9 complex and ensure that you are getting lots of branch chain amino acids from your protein (I recommend a good whey protein drink – PVL makes some good ones). I’d recommend Yoga regardless of what your main thing is, and don’t forget to get lots of sleep for recovery.

Now let’s use this WWW thing for worthwhile revolution, shall we…?!